1200 Interview

After a lifetime of travel, two college professors ended up in their very own passive house.

On a Friday morning in May, GO Logic coworkers Lily, Laurie and Amelia sat down to talk with Laurie about how she found GO Logic and how it has felt to live in her 1,100sf passive house.

AT: How did you find GO Logic?

Laurie: For about 15 years, because we had lived in other countries and seen that other countries were way ahead of the US in sustainable building, we started exploring how hard it would be to build a passive house in the United States. Three years before we found GO Logic we had put enough money together to build our dream. By then, we had to factor in that we had two elderly people in the family - my mother in her 90’s and my husband in his 80’s, and they were going to need care, so we were going to need to have a single-floor house.

We found GO Logic after 2 years of research, looking at all the competitors and going online, and looking at all the big fancy national corporations. We saw a tiny ad for GO Logic in a magazine about sustainable architecture. We gave them a call, we liked the way that we were greeted and treated and we never looked back.

We started construction in late October 2014 and were complete by the end of May 2015 in just seven short months, including working through one of the worst winters the region had seen in 20 years!

AT: What is your reason for building your house to Passive House standard?

Laurie: We got tired of paying for fossil fuels that we knew were causing health problems for everybody and climate problems for everybody. We wanted to put ourselves into a position where what we believed in, we were actually doing. We believed in a small carbon footprint, and we wanted to live less intrusively on the earth.

AT: When you lost power in the winter a few years ago, how did your house perform?

Laurie: Because we have no main heating system in the house, we have a small propane stove in the living room for backup heat. We use it about 3 days a year when it’s really cold. That particular year, we had 3 blizzards in February and the last blizzard we had 95mph gusts which packed snow in the exhaust vent for the stove. I didn’t know that because it had never happened before. And then immediately we had an ice storm, so it wasn’t snow anymore it was ice pack.

I turned on the propane stove because the temps were down to 57F. It was the first time I’d felt chilly in the house. So, I turned the stove on and smelled gas. I turned the stove off, opened the windows, aired everything out. All the repair people were booked, so I spent three days with the house being 58 degrees. I wasn’t cold, but I did have to put on an extra sweater. Eventually, I called Alan Gibson, asked him what I should do. He came by and we got the propane stove working again. That’s the only problem we’ve had with the house.

AT: You’ve lived all over the world, how did you decide to anchor your lives in Belfast with a GO Home?

We wanted to have a house in which we could age in place. So, we wanted an ADA-compliant bathroom, and GO Logic was able to figure all that out within our budget, which was tight.

It turned out to be an ideal situation, the house is perfect for aging in place. It’s 3 miles from downtown, 6 miles from the hospital, 3 miles from two drug stores, 3 miles to the grocery store. It worked out beautifully. The house is so easy to live in because it’s 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I am living alone now, so the house is easy to maintain for a woman who enjoys that kind of thing.

We have friends who built a passive house in Scotland, almost identical to ours but bigger. What amazed me was they hired people who were using the same products that we use in our house. Materials like wood fiber insulation; the same companies!

I thought ‘they’ve been at it longer than we have because of the European connection.’ Scotland and Germany have a lot of common ground when it comes to these passive houses. Ireland has gone over the top when it comes to passive houses. It’s very easy to see a model home in Ireland, and we did. And when we came home and saw what we were getting, we said “wow, this is great!”

Lily: What is it like to live in your house, from a sensory perspective?

Laurie: Visually, it’s like living outdoors. It’s like being in a tent except the tent is clean and warm. The windows are so large, and the doors have glass all the way to the floor. No matter where you are in the house, you are outdoors. This morning I had two deer that were watching me take a shower.

AT: What’s your monthly electric bill?

Laurie: I just paid $57. Hot water heater, dishwasher, and dryer. I was paying between $35-38 before the rate hikes. I don’t have an HVAC system. I have 4 LUNOS air exchangers that run all the time, on low. In the summer I just open the windows and don’t have the LUNOS on at all, so my electric bill goes down because I’m just heating water for showers and dishes.

Lily: What do you love most about the house?

Laurie: When I drive up to the house, I see a little barn with an attached garage. Being an animal lover, I just feel like I am back home where I belong. I see a whole bunch of animals I don’t want to keep, but I get to see them. Including the porcupine that chased me the other day.

For me, having now built 4 houses in my lifetime, the GO Logic contract was the cleanest, the coordination was the best, communications were superior, I always knew where we were with the project, and it was always the entire crew working together.

The house is 1100sf. Easy for a woman alone to maintain. Accommodated a woman in her 90’s until she had to go into assisted living. Accommodated a man who was struggling with mobility issues toward the end. Was built within budget. Quality materials. Great crew. Knowledgeable crew. Good relations with the clients. Very caring and compassionate. They succeeded building a house for people to age well in, and I am getting to live in that house.

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